Dimapur accounts for most Covid-19 deaths in Nagaland; one victim aged below 40

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 19 (EMN): Among the 10 Covid-19 deaths (official) reported in Nagaland till date, eight are male and two, female.

The median age of the 10 deaths is 50 years, the state nodal officer for IDSP, Dr. Nyanthung Kikon, informed on Friday.

As per the directorate of Health and Family Welfare’s daily Covid-19 update, 15 deaths “have been reflected” as of September 18. According to the department, five out of the 15 deaths are “not Covid related”. Three of these death cases are under investigation.

‘All those deaths, which have been reflected in the daily bulletin, are those people who had passed away in the month of August. The number of deaths under investigation is also there for more than two weeks,’ Kikon said. The reason, according to the official, was because the reports were not coming from the district death review committee (DRC).

‘However, that doesn’t mean they are blaming the committee at the district level,’ he pointed out.

In the last few weeks, there was a spike in positive cases, which even went up to 20% to 22%. ‘Therefore, the district death review committee could sit down only last month,’ he said.

A number of deaths from Dimapur were being reported to the directorate following the sitting, Kikon added. As per the Health directorate’s daily bulletin, 14 out of 15 deaths are from Dimapur while the other one is from Mon.

The death review committee at the state level consists of clinicians, microbiologists, panels from district hospitals and centre of excellence, he said. Therefore, to have these panels and experts get together for a meeting is “very tough”, as some are on Covid duty and some under quarantine, he said, adding that it was one of the main challenges.

The official said that less than half of these deaths had occurred outside Covid-19 hospitals. ‘Except for one, most of them are above 40 age groups,’ he added.

Earlier, the principal director of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Vizolie Z Suokhrie, said that those who had passed away from Covid-19 were having ‘severe co-morbidity situations’.

‘In most cases, they reached the hospital at the last hour. There were also few cases which were referred from another place to Dimapur. In order to avoid repeating such situations, the department has already worked out on those things,’ he added.